Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a former secretary of state, joined his fellow Republicans Thursday by issuing a strong condemnation of ACORN, an advocacy group accused by its critics in Missouri and other swing states of submitting bogus voter registrations.
The Republican elections director in Jackson County said earlier this week that her office was sifting through several hundred suspect registrations submitted by some ACORN workers. ACORN’s regional director has disputed the assertion, saying that the group’s officials had singled out the suspect cards when all the registration cards were turned in, as required by law.
In a statement, the governor said, “Fraudulent registration is an assault on our election system and should not be tolerated, period. There can be only one reason why an organization like ACORN would consistently submit fraudulent registrations and that is to cheat the system by allowing people to cast fraudulent ballots.
“I am disappointed that at least one Missouri official so casually dismisses this unavoidable truth, trying without success to claim registration fraud and voter fraud are not one and the same,” the governor said, without mentioning the official in question. “Registration fraud has only one purpose and that is voter fraud.”
Blunt then added, “I am calling on all Missouri clerks, election directors and prosecutors to be alert and vigilant, responding immediately to any and all allegations of voter fraud. It is the responsibility of all political parties to carefully watch over our election process while recognizing that under no circumstance should anyone ever intimidate voters.”
ACORN Midwest director Jeff Ordower said in a telephone interview Thursday that ACORN collected 53,500 new voter registrations statewide. About 19,000 were in the Kansas City area, and the rest in the St. Louis region. (Nationwide, ACORN collected 1.3 million new registrations, he said.)
Ordower said that about 200 cards submitted to Jackson County, out of 5,000, appeared to be either duplicates, incomplete, or be questionable. He said that was discussed in a meeting with county election officials on Sept. 12.
He accused Republicans of raising questions now, just as they have done every election.
He also pointed to remarks delivered Wednesday by St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, a Democrat, at a City Hall news conference lauding ACORN and other voter-registration groups, and the city Election Board.
“I have worked very hard with both Republicans and Democrats on the St. Louis Election Board to make sure that everyone who is eligible to vote can do so with the least amount of hassle,” Slay said. “Republican (elections director) Scott Leiendecker has done a very good job of improving the operations since the 2000 fiasco. I am hopeful they will be ready for the heavy turnout.
“Thousands of Missourians have signed up this year to vote. I want to acknowledge the hard work done by ACORN and Pro Vote to help people to register. According to our election authority, they did a good job.
“It is well known that I support Senator Obama. But, making sure every eligible voter can cast a ballot goes beyond partisanship….Don’t let anyone intimidate or threaten you. If you signed up to vote and are eligible to vote, do not let anyone take that right away from you. The future of our country is at stake in this election.”
Good for Gov. Blunt here – this kind of leadership will be missed. ACORN is nothing more than a thuggish group of political misfits who will stop at nothing to get their way – and their way is getting a Democrat elected. At any cost. They are an indefensible “organization” and need to be stopped.
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Good for Gov. Blunt keeping these elections clean — First the Obama goon squads and now this. Good thing we have a gov who will tough on this kind of fraud.
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Now, Bob, there you go again. I don’t put all of you under the same umbrella and I never have. But there are supporters McCain around here who have said quite openly that they “just can’t vote for a black guy.” We can’t hide from our history, and we can’t deny the effects it has on our culture. And just to tie this back in to voter registration, it’s strange how the ACORN topic is politicized by the right wing. It’s as if they are looking for reasons to explain their future losses.
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From the comments one of the middle schools must be having a day off today.
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“I wouldn’t call it the party of racists”
Hogwash! Any regular visitor would know — if there’s anybody on this blog that would use “party of racists” — it would be MLGB
Ah, jeez … NTSA from — mlgb
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I wouldn’t call it the party of racists, but I would call it the party of people least likely to understand race relations in America, or most likely to avoid the topic all together.
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I can’t believe people think my party is the party of racists.
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Dagnabbit!! Hey BobZzz ya jist remembered me that I forgit ta sine up to vote too.
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Yikes!! I dun fergot tuh register fer the derned election. What kin I do now??
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Let’s see if Slay still likes it after his next election. All those dead people can vote against him, too.
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Republicans always love a low voter-turnout. Let’s talk about how it works in their favor: If the turnout is 54 percent, and just over half of that votes for a republican, they call it a majority even though it’s really less than 30 percent of the total population.
So when Obama actually motivates more people to get involved, they get scared. They start crying “Oh there must be something wrong here!” They are afraid of the landslide victory because they know deep down that they are a minority in a big way in this country.
A quote you can apply to McCain:
“A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.” -Bernard Baruch
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There’s nothing legitimate about being a Democrat so any time you register one the registration is illegitimate as well.
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I love groups that falsely register, re-register, re-re-register future Democrat voters.
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I hate groups that register black people to vote.
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Not yet counting Missouri ACORN is under investigation for vote fraud in 15 states. That should tell us enough.
That Mayor Slay loves ACORN should tell us in a way… like a cold slap to the face.
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